Leyton Orient interim head coach Ross Embleton felt his side were not ruthless enough in their own box as they let a 2-1 lead slip against Crawley Town.

Goals from Josh Wright and Lee Angol either side of a Nathan Ferguson strike gave them a lead until former O's striker Ollie Palmer came off the bench to nab a brace in two minutes.

Crawley then saw the match out despite a few late chances for attacker Louis Dennis at Brisbane Road.

"Defensively as a team we're finding out what the league is about but I've just said to the lads there has to come a point when you do learn from your mistakes and you correct them.

"We need to develop a ruthlessness in our own box which is going to help us, we've kept a couple of clean sheets already, but it will help us in games like today where we don't kill teams off in the manner we hope to."

Orient switched from a back five to a back four for the clash with Dan Happe being dropped to the bench while Joe Widdowson missed out with injury as Jordan Maguire-Drew and Dennis came into the line-up.

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But Embleton insists the formation had nothing to do with conceding the three goals in the match.

"There were problems at the back not because of the formation but because we didn't defend our box well enough.

"I don't think it matters if you have a back three, a back four or a back five, individually sometimes you have to make decisions and defend appropriately and I don't think we did that.

"It was poor moments in the game from us allowed Crawley to get three goals."

Although the former Swindon Town assistant felt they did limit the visitors chance and create more themselves.

"Very disappointed that we've dominated a game but given them three goals," Embleton admitted.

"I don't think there was a huge amount of opportunities created by them; I can't remember the amount of saves Deano has had to make in comparison to Glenn Morris."

They did however have chances to clear the ball for all three of Crawley's goals.

Warwickshire advanced to the brink of Division One safety after Essex were forced into a dogged rearguard action on the third day of their Specsavers County Championship Division One tussle at Edgbaston.